Justin Smoak isn’t simply the hottest hitter in all of baseball. No! There’s more! He’s hitting near-.400 in the last week with four homers. But wait, there’s more! Justin Smoak is the world’s first liquid smoke for a fantasy team. Put Justin Smoak on your fantasy team and it instantly adds an unmistakable Smoak flavor. Sick of bland boeuf Welington, try Justin Smoak! Once you taste Justin Smoak, you’re gonna be like, “Now I know why those crazy Canadians measure everything in meat’ers!” This Eve is not covering her naughty bits with a fig leaf, she’s wearing Smoak’d beef! Justin Smoak adds such flavor to a fatty piece of old beef it now becomes lean and fresh, leaving our Spanish customers saying, “Si, newy!” I don’t want to Bragg about our Liquid Aminos, but Justin Smoak can be added to real-live cows and they take on the unmistakeable smell of an ashtray! All of this for the low, low price of a waiver wire pickup! Justin Smoak is too good not to try! (Awaiting FDA approval.) Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:

BUY

Austin Hedges – Moving from Smoak to one half of Benson & Hedges is just how Pall Mall would’ve wanted it. If the next player is Philip Morris Chesterfield, I’m gonna say Razzball is in the deep pockets of Big Tobacco. On our Player Rater, any idea how high Hedges is for catchers? Nope. Try higher. Keep going. 4th best catcher, and not exactly close.

Josh Bell – I just went over Bell this morning. If you use your scrolly finger in conjunction with your mousey hand, you should find it.

Logan Morrison – The way these 1st basemen are all coming together this week, it reminds me of the sportsmanship exhibited when John Olerud offered Robin Ventura his steel cap to avoid further noogies.

Tim Beckham – Becks and Posh isn’t just David & Victoria Beckham, isn’t just a German beer and an adjective used instead of ‘South-Ken’ing awesome;’ it’s Tim Beckham and his ability to posh past other middle infielders. (Not forced at all!)

Tim Anderson – I almost put Chris Taylor here, but Forsythe is gonna return soon. By the way, John Forsythe prolly has the most handsome corpse. Lorenzo Lamas wishes he were dead and looked that good. As for Anderson, oh, ya know, just your random schmotato that is hitting over-.500 in the last week and who I’ve grabbed all over. I mean, I grabbed him in multiple leagues, not that I grabbed him all over his schnoogels.

Didi Gregorius – He used to get feels on a pitch, hey, whatever happened to James Shields with a pitch, don’t try to stop Didi from that shortstop shizz.

Amed Rosario – Don’t think it’s quite time yet in shallower leagues, but at some point very soon I’m going to make Rosario the lede and you’re not going to be able to grab him anymore.

Ian Happ – Here’s what I said the other day, “The Cubs are saying this callup is only for a few days while the Cubs get back to health. Couple thoughts here: A) He could be better than Ben Zobrist right now. B) The Cubs don’t mind promoting him because they have no intention of holding him on their team, i.e., I could see a trade of him at some point this year. C) There’s no C. D) There’s a D, but I’m gonna put it in with E. E) I call this one Molly. F) Me. G) rey Albright. H) i. I) am Legend. J) The Cubs will send him back down. K) lmnop Q) Why wouldn’t you still own him in every league? R) You crazy? S) CarGo. T) A drink with jam and bread. U) Can’t Touch This. V) for Vendatta. W) In 26 games of Triple-A, Happ had 9 homers and a .298 average. X) Prospector Ralph said, “Power/speed skill set with the ability to draw walks. Swing and miss will keep his average lower, and he doesn’t have a true defensive position.” Y) Because. Z) There’s wasn’t a C, why would there be a Z?” And that’s me quoting me!

Keon Broxton – As I write this, I’m wearing my striped romper, so I look like a fashionable guy on the beach in 1925. Sometimes, I wear my romper to an auto garage and get all the mechanics to dance behind me like I’m their rompered Justin Timberlake, but enough about me, this is about Broxton and how he should be owned everywhere. Even Hitter-Tron agrees, like it agrees to grease all metal rods, real slow.

James Pazos – Could be the M’s closer, but I also own Nick Vincent, because I’m a saves whore and my brothel is the waiver wire.

Corey Knebel – At this point, I’m finding it hard to envision Neftali Feliz getting the closer job back. After all, Feliz is Spanish for happy, but it’s said sarcastically, like, “Feliz navidad,” as you take pictures of your neighbor’s nativity scene at 3AM so you can put it on eBay.

Koda Glover – Dusty Baker doesn’t even know what Dusty Baker is going to do pitching-wise from moment to moment, so your guess is as good as mine.

Matt Bush – Okay, I honestly don’t understand this. Why is Matt Bush not owned in as many leagues as, say, Justin Wilson? Is this some kind of moral stand because Bush is a piece of garbage? I’m not saying Wilson shouldn’t be owned, but Bush has been the Rangers’ closer for an Urban Dictionary minute, which is actually a long time, and Bush has been where the sun don’t shine. Hmm, I got too flowery in my description, should’ve just went with ‘lights out.’

SELL

Miguel Sano – Yes, the power is real, but be realistic for, like, a half second. His BABIP right now is .411. Um, yeah, no. His strikeout rate is still near 35%. Um, okay, no. He will bat .245 this year, and with that will go bye-bye on runs and RBIs, leaving him as a straight power guy, and I don’t mean a power guy that loves the ladies, though, he might. There’s value here, but not as much as he’s shown. No, I’m not saying sell him for tickets to Dr. Phil’s studio audience for a followup appearance by the ‘Cash Me Outside’ girl.

@Grey: Ha. Thanks for noticing. I’m at or towards the bottom in HR/RBI/Avg. Rizzo, Story, Dozier, Seager and Trumbo, my top 5 picks, are all still sucking. Pleasant surprises like Healy and Avisail can’t carry me.

If Happ isn’t sent down when Heyward is activated tomorrow, should I pick him up over Hernan Perez? I feel like if Perez isn’t going to run, his value is diminished a bit… Or I could punt SBs and drop Deez Nutz.

2nd Question – where do you see Smoak’s upside? Would you drop Trevorending Story for him?

@Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves: smoak over c. Santana rest of season? What am I missing? Just looking at their career peripherals I think Carlos would be better ROS. Has smoak changed something in his approach? I know he’s been able to hit homers before but looks like he’s always been a borderline 700 OPS guy. Plus Indians better offense I know Toronto better hitters park but Carlos is usually a second half player

@Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves: smoak over c. Santana rest of season? What am I missing? Just looking at their career peripherals I think Carlos would be better ROS. Has smoak changed something in his approach? I know he’s been able to hit homers before but looks like he’s always been a borderline 700 OPS guy. Plus Indians better offense I know Toronto better hitters park but Carlos is usually a second half [email protected]Grey:

First time commenter, long time reader. Grey, you’re awesome and I’ve been reading Razzball.com for years! Will you rank the following CI’s for the rest of the season in a 5×5 Roto: To-Jo, Castellanos, Smoak and Yonder.

If my ratios and QS blow, but I’m looking to sell Sano, what tier of pitchers should he return? There’s a guy in my league with pretty good pitching who needs a hitting 3B that I feel I could target for a trade, but maybe I’m way off base…he has Darvish/Miley/Gray/Roark/Graveman/Wacha/Nova/Carrasco/E-Rod/Pomeranz for SP.

@Grey: Thanks for the reference point. I could try it, though I’m guessing the guy with McCullers will be less willing to trade as his team is high on hitting stats/lower on pitching, while the other guy with pitchers is more likely to be looking for hitting and willing to give pitching.

I’m not going to suggest that in game strategy and lineup construction is a manager’s only job. I’m sure there are intangible things–how to manage egos, talk to guys, deal with travel stuff, etc–that we can’t measure.

I also understand that you need to get guys into the lineup every 10 days or so. If you have a guy like, say, Chris Coghlan, he needs to play so that when you need him, he’s ready.

But can we just agree that, for the money they get paid, there MUST be 30 people in the world (willing to wear a costume every day) who would be good at both?

So. Mr. Gibbons.

The beauty of a Chris Coghlan is that he can play almost anywhere. So you could give any number of people a day off so that he can play.

So, maybe just maybe, YOUR 2ND BASEMAN WHO HAS BEEN DOG SNOT MOST OF THE YEAR BUT IS SCORCHING HOT RIGHT NOW IS NOT THE BEST OPTION TO SIT DOWN?!?

Perhaps a super old guy like Bautista would be a better option. In addition to being old and creaky, he is a veteran who at least should be better at handling a day off. And ALSO with the added bonus that you know it’s a beanball game and you KNOW who they are going after. But NO–let’s bench the kid who could totally lose it and go back to hell at any moment. For this, Gibbons is a millionaire?

I need to drop someone to activate melancon. I have To-Jo and I. Happ in my lineup as the most droppable hitters but they’re basically the only ones hitting. Do I drop one of them or one of my back end starters Gio, Wood or Eduardo Rodriguez? Carlos Santana would be another option but I’m still hoping his terribleness wanes.

i’m guessing CUBS town is getting that nasty shit that STL had about an hour before dawn, heavy winds, lightning hitting stuff, power outages. or at least similar system, took a long time to get there if so.

In a fairly deep 5×5 Roto. Matt Garza is peaking my interest. Is he returning to his form from 2012-2014 (high 3’s ERA w/ 1.2 WHIP) or has he just faced weak competition? He’s 33, so not over-the-hill…

man that’s not good when franco, at home, in a good park, against a shitty righty is getting a Tron score of less than 1.

2. for 12 teamer if you had lamb/franco/c-sant/rizzo drop any for to-jo in league specs above? have hernan for 3B on lamb lefty-off days. but of course if hernan loses at bats when braun is back that isn’t great. no CI slots, but 2 utils.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarvessays:
May 19, 2017 at 3:06 pm (link)

@Grey: yeah i’d guess even if current value of to-jo > franco the risk of that flipping, franco being grabbed, me possibly left with no starter on some days would be really really bad. and c-sant in OBP is a whole different ballgame than 5×5. also chance of to-jo losing job entirely looms.

Happy Friday Grey! Are you still pointing the needle towards SELL for Duffy after his start last night? I’m in a K/9 league and couldn’t sell him off over the past two weeks, and just when I thought he couldn’t get his K’s back up, he does something like that and TOTALLY REDEEMS HIMSELF!

Also…I don’t like catchers, but have Realmuto and am relatively happy with his production. Drop him for Hedges? OBP league.

Hey Grey. Would u trade Ozuna for ERod? Im alreay at 100 honers on the year and kead in runs and rbis. I could spare the power. OBP league. I mean I have a nice rotation of Carassco/Archer/Mcullers/Paxton/Maeda/Ray/Wheeler/J.Gray…..but why not add pitching. Of consists of Stanton/Springer/Ozuna/Conforto/Thames/Dickerson.

NL only 5×5 keeper.. looking at a couple of trade offers.. would you rather take Dahl or Happ??
If Happ trade to AL, I’d lose him, I have no idea if the Cubs will trade him, Eloy, or Baez.
Both are cheap, but I’d have control over Happ for another 2 years over Dahl.

@Grey: As cricketers are fond of saying, Kennys ‘dismissed it from his presence’.

While I have you on the line, in the ol’ H2H, I’m trying to get saves out of Robertson, Knebel, Vincent and a recently-dropped-by-someone-who-couldn’t-take-it-any-more Maurer. I have Bedrosian and Familia on the DL.

I could really do with freeing up a spot – I know it’s a shitty collection of relievers, but SAGNOF. Is Familia expendable? I also have about 4 hitters on the DL so it’s not like i have DL slots to burn.

I got $100 for groceries, $1400 for liquor and $6,000 for you to bail a couple of shit puppets out of jailsays:
May 19, 2017 at 8:48 pm (link)

i would’ve guessed top 6 for hedges, as i know i had no intention of dropping him after he starting hitting homers after that 0-25 to start the year strech. when you literally use a different catcher in really deep leagues 80% of all days (unless you somehow know bandy is going twice in a row in some leagues, which you usually don’t) you start to get a feel for when NOT to drop a guy, esp in moves limits leagues. it was much harder when DTD’arnaud was doing awesome while also pulling the old catcher version of victorino.

best stream tomorrow
meyer @ NYM (SON loves this guy, scares the hell out of me)
gausman vs TOR
meyer’s 2.1 bucks higher. man the mess must not be good against pitchers of meyer’s type. either that or meyer has gotten very very lucky excepting his last start. or both.

how messed up is it that with all my injuries this week (braun/story/brocktune/dave peralta) that i might very well lose total bases/OBP/hits this week in my bigger money league h2h team ONLY from dropping wong for walker back on monday. this is ugly. also that 1/5th of moves used on that could’ve been used for miranda/nelson stream or acquiring zimmer/pazos.

wong since monday (even with a lefty in there, is kinda why i dumped him for walker, plus the counting stats walker would tend to get in the 4th hole rather than 8th hole)
OBP of .556, 9 bases, 3 runs, 1 RBI, 7 hits.
walker OBP of .308, 4 bases, 3 hits, 2 runs, no rbi’s.

Grey, in your yearly Top 500 you were thinking Max Kepler is going to be a top 75 player this year (548 AB,74 R, 23 HR, 85 RBI, 14 SB, 0.266 AVG). What is your expectation on him now? Should I drop him or still keep him in a 20 teams league 5*5? Thanks!

I own joc in a dynasty league. Not sure how to feel about him. Contact is at an all-time high, which was his biggest issue when he came up. But this year the flyballs disappeared and GB% increased. Still has only one HR, from first couple days of the season.

Is he a sell low? Hold? It’s an OBP league, so he has more value, but even this year he’s still around low .300s.

Have loved this guy since he came up but no idea what to make of him now.

I got offered Benintendi for my Andrew Miller and Justin Wilson. It is a keeper league with the ability to sign guys up to 5 years. We get $280 for the keepers and the auction draft. I signed Miller to 2 years and he is $5 next year. Benintendi is signed through 2019 and his contract is $12 in 2018 and $17 for 2019.

Thoughts on Benintendi for the ROS and also for the next 2 years. I am still in the running this year but if I trade these 2 guys I really have nothing left from a saves perspective. Kintzler, Kelley, Nick Vincent, Derek Law also on the team. Dumpster diving for saves….

We had discussed dropping Miguel Gonzalez if Happ stays up. The questions I have are these.

1) Would you drop Adam Frazier or Gonzalez to make room for Happ?

2) In my league if a pitcher that is your minors pitches 50 innings in the show you must call them up. If I am forced to bring him up I would need to drop someone. Is Gonzalez or Adam Frazier a choice for Glasnow or just cut Glasnow knowing that someone will pick him up.

8 team H2H 5×5 category private league. These guys are currently on my waiver wire. Could you see dropping any of my current players for any of these guys, or just holding? Thanks, love the site.
Waiver Wire: Cory Dickerson, Yonder Alonso, Scott Schebler, Ian Happ, Justin Smoak, Tommy Joseph.

good god AAron again with the blisters. do these guys (hill too) have some kind of degenerative skin disease? i’m being serious as up till these two i don’t think i’d ever heard of somebody having “recurring blister syndrome”

@Joey Jo Jo Jr Shabadoo: let me fix that, i’d never heard of it when applied to pitchers in baseball. i do remember having a memory of constant blisters, but it didn’t have anything to do with baseball.

did you ever watch Peaky Blinders? last year you said it was on your list. I bailed in season 2 or 3. Same thing with Ray Donovan. I hate it when the main guy goes through the asshole selfish phase usually in season 2-3 (same thing with Madmen but I pushed through on that one).

carmart now at 9.125 pitches per inning across 8 innings. maybe he’s afraid of water and wants to get this game done as soon as possible. it’s hard to even do that. the hitters have to help out at SF very much. both offenses looking like shit, might have carmart start the 11th at like 95 pitches.

if anybody’s watching that SF/STL game somebody slipped carpenter some DMT and convinced him he suddenly had billy hamilton’s legs when he attempted to take third on a double to the left field wall and get tagged out easily.

@Grey: turned a guy on 2B in extra innings with no outs to one out nobody on base with 1 out. that team has had baserunning issues since at least last year, carp tagged out in similar situation somewhat lately.

hey straily give up at least some hits so i have a snowball’s chance in hell of adding you in like 27 hours here when i get moves back for next week please! if he keeps up this no hitter business he’ll be gone earlier for sure, and i’m actually surprised in this league he’s available anyway really. i got perdomo/m.montgomery to dispose myself of.

Hi Grey, 12 team roto weekly lineups, wins and losses, those cats suck.
Would you add a two start Eickhoff this week? Both starts are a stream and at home vs. Col. Hoffman and Cinci Feldman. I’d have to sit a closer for a week.
2. Is Law a drop? I also have Melancon.
Thanks, enjoy your Sunday.

@Grey: well i guess now with thames having a minor injury hold cactus, drop rey fuentes for either arroyo or a bacukup catcher (some actual starters out there in rivera/barnhart/DTD’arnaud). could drop cahill now that he seems even more injured than before. fuentes was lead off for about 1 game, not anymore.

@The Harrow: nevermind, but this is odd that the claim is bush needed 2 full days off after going 33 pitches on FRIDAY, unless maybe the rotoworld guys meant saturday on that one. this also explains just why dyson was in the 7th/8th and not kela

I agree that the BABIP will chill to a certain degree, but he has the skill set to run one near .375, and that’s a low estimation. His hard contact rate of 52.4% is first in the league. Soft contact rate of 3.7% is also first, by a wide margin. His average exit velocity of 100 mph thwarts the second best hitter in that regard, who sits at 96.1 mph. The gap between him and second place is larger than second to 30th.

Furthermore, he uses the whole field, so he won’t get dinged by shifts, and he’s doing a terrific job of avoiding BABIP killers: 2.7 IFFB% and 29.3 GB%.

The BABIP won’t be at .479 (as of Tuesday) for the whole year, obviously, but selling based on an assumed BABIP correction is a shallow look at a hitter’s skill set.